out + about in oakland

I've been meaning to visit Oakland for months, and Lydia and I finally decide to go there this afternoon. At 3pm, it stops raining, and we take advantage of this change of weather to walk to the 24th street BART. We take the metro to MacArthur station, located on the northern side of Oakland. I guide us along Telegraph Avenue, a large avenue flanked by numerous eateries. On our way, we stop inside Rare Heir, an antique store my mom would love. There, we find figurines of the Wild Thornberries, which take us straight back to our childhoods.

We keep walking along Telegraph before arriving on 49th street, where Temescal Alley is located. This super trendy spot consists in a dozen or so indie boutiques (and a barber shop!). Our favorite store happens to be the first one we go to: CrimsonHorticultural Rarities. We find plants, soaps and candles, ceramics, and much more. In a similar vein is Homestead Apothecary, which also sells tea and spices by weight (a bit like Scarlet Sage). As usual, Lydia samples all of the creams and perfumes in the shop, and comes out not knowing exactly which scent is which.

Temescal Alley also hosts two lovely jewelry shops: Esqueleto (where prices are not even displayed...) and Marisa Mason (where one can admire the materials used to make some of the jewelry pieces behind the register).

Lydia finds herself a superb pair of purple velvet pants at Mind's Eye, a vintage store with a great selection of clothing and accessories from the past.

Our last stop in Temescal is BOOK/SHOP, a high end bookstore selling a mix of rare and new books, as well as book accessories (such as a book restoration kit). It's pretentious and expensive, but I can't deny loving it anyway.

We then take the #6 bus (where we must pay in exact change and hold the entire bus back as we scour our wallets searching for loose coins). We get off around 10th street, and after a quick visit to Marion and Rose's Workshop, which sells exclusively American-made goods (including beautiful linen napkins), we are ready for dinner!

We thus enter Souley Vegan, which is actually the main reason we came to Oakland in the first place. This vegan soul food restaurant is so popular it received the visit of Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The menu is incredibly tempting, and we want to try every single item.

We end up ordering two dishes to share: one 'shrimp' Po' boy with fries and one combination plate with mac 'n' cheese, collard greens and Southern fried tofu (served with a slice of cornbread). The mac 'n' cheese are undoubtedly the best vegan m 'n' c I've ever tried, and possibly my favorite thing I eat. The collard greens and 'shrimp' are also filled with flavor. Lydia really loves the cornbread, but it's not quite "corn-y" enough for my taste. The next time I come to Souley Vegan, I'll try the BBQ tofu sandwich for sure.

Needless to say, we come out of there in a quasi-food coma (I'm unsure how we even make it back to SF). It's only 8pm when we get home, yet all we can muster the strength to do is watch two episodes of 3%, an incredible dystopian Netflix original drama I highly recommend.